Creator
Darryl Accone was the chess columnist of The Star from 1981 to 1994 and books editor of the Mail & Guardian from 2006 to 2017.
From banned books to political activism, Marcus de Jong’s life was a testament to the power of ideas and the human spirit
Tom Holland draws extensively on the great work by the father of history, Herodotus, whose The Histories is a searching, if often discursive, investigation into the roots and…
The work of the French Renaissance philosopher offers wisdom applicable to modern politics
We ought to read them; we want to; we will. Next summer, or winter, when time indoors lends a circumstantial hand. Or next year. And so the pile grows, to be added to deathbed…
Today, 96 years after the great writer’s seminal speech on women in fiction, what has changed?
In this time of conflict, thoughts wander to Bob Dylan’s lyrics and John le Carré’s insights
The battle between Satan and the forces of good has preoccupied writers for aeons
The seminal Spanish novel and its author are difficult to pin down in translation and history
Alexei Navalny’s demise spotlights how death and displacement are portrayed in the media and in literature
Women writers have often been treated badly but the first novel was written by one
This era in politics is crying out for a great chronicler in the mould of the American writer
Scepticism has dogged stories of exploration from Ancient Greece through to Apollo XI
Ideologies are set against profound beliefs as a priest sits at the centre of a storm in a village during the civil war in Greece
Play reveals the intimate effects of military-industrial profiteering
A poem and a novel have resonance for the empires and the events of today
Themes in Herman Melville’s classic novel ‘Moby-Dick’ give us insight into today’s wars
‘The Iliad’, which was composed thousands of years ago, still offers us insight into the way people behave — which is why the classics matter
Thomas Mofolo’s 1907 ‘masterpiece’ novel offers the reader a journey of body and soul
One should reread Bessie Head’s book to fully appreciate it in all its magnificence
The author, reporter, editor and chronicler was both a man of his time and ahead of it
